Do normal people take the bus?

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EnvironmentalYam2058@reddit

People hate on the bus system in the US but where I’m at commuter buses are full of downtown office workers. Houston and DFW metro. It’s not uncommon in Houston for people to use the park and ride in the suburbs to take the commuter buses into downtown. And hospital workers living in downtown/midtown to take the metro train to the hospital district. And in Dallas they have a lot of Dart park and rides connected to the Dart trains to downtown and the Train that goes between downtown Dallas and Fort Worth that during commute hours is packed full of commuters. But both have problems with expansion because everyone keeps saying only poor and homeless use the public transit and they don’t want to fund it and that it takes away their rights of having a vehicle by increasing the public transit options.

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vibe_ology@reddit

Interesting conservation. I don’t live in the US and don’t drive due to a health issue so I rely on buses and public transport. What do people do in the US if they cannot drive?

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Ill-Woodpecker1857@reddit

When I lived in Baltimore it seemed to be mostly lower class that used public transport. The light rail on game day being the one exception that comes to mind.

When I lived in Pittsburgh it seemd like mostly upper middle class people on the way to/from office jobs.

Living-Night4476@reddit

Depends on how far away from the school you are. Too close you walk too far you have to get a ride somehow to school via parents or friends. I lived right on the edge of being picked up by a bus so I got picked up first 6:40am-7am rode entire bus route to get to school. And school officially started at 8am. To be able to ride the bus home I’d have to stay for 9th period to be on elementary school bus line and still was last to be dropped off so I’d get home around 4:30-5pm after I walked the mile from my bus stop home.

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FinanceGuyHere@reddit

I’ve lived in certain towns where everyone took the bus because the road which connected towns was only one lane. So if you didn’t take the bus to work, you would simply get stuck behind the bus!

I now live in a house that isn’t really close to a bus stop/route so it would be a pain to use it daily

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Very location based. Busses are usually either privately funded or city funded if an area has them at all.

It used to be really common to use the bus for all your transportation where I live but during COVID they significantly reduced the number of busses and the time the busses run. They stop at the specific bus stops less often than they used to as well.

On a national level, yes, this is because Americans tend to focus on car ownership and view taking public transportation as something contemptible and below them.

take a look for yourself, Sam

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Shoshin_Sam@reddit

Shit that’s messed up. But what’s interesting is also that the article didn’t talk about a motive at all. It’s like it is commonly understood that the why doesn’t matter, which is crazier. I mean it’s hard to accept this was just random and can happen to anyone. Feels like they must’ve had a history.

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Maleficent-Hawk-318@reddit

I'm a "normal person" and I take the bus in Albuquerque. 😂 See a lot of other commuters, too.

I think in Burque, it's more about where you live. Despite all the complaining by people who don't actually use it, ART is great and makes commuting by bus super easy. But it's limited, and buses in the rest of the city are much more of a hassle.

Also, speaking as a criminologist who has actually looked into this, our public transit is pretty damn safe. 😂 I know the news stories you're talking about, but you have to remember that our local news loves to stoke a panic about crime. If you look at the actual ridership numbers vs. incidents, the picture is pretty different.

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beachbum19722025@reddit

I wish Albuquerque would treat public transportation here like a service for everyone, instead of something they "have to give the poors".

Improvements to how often they run, and extended hours would do wonders for this town.

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brubauers@reddit

I just feel like it has so much room for improvement, but then again, a lot in Albuquerque has room for improvement in a few regards and is actively improving which is cool to see

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xpunkrockmomx@reddit

I'm a driver in a small city. Trust me, I know.

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nerdmon59@reddit

This is the answer. If the buses are frequent enough and go where we need to get, a lot of people use them from all walks of life.

I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. Lived in the east bay and rode the bus to work in Downtown San Francisco for many years. Eventually rode the BART trains. For a time I had a sales territory where I had to drive. Crossing the Bay Bridge was a pain, especially driving home in the afternoon.

After I moved on to other jobs out in the suburbs, the transit options would not work so I had to drive to work.

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Trinx_@reddit

In my hometown, the bus was that way. Only went a few places and took forever. I never rode it.

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myOEburner@reddit

Certain east coast cities have okay public transit, and taking a bus is acceptable in some cases. Busses are generally terrible and anyone who can avoid taking a bus will not take a bus. It is generally considered a "poor" mode of transportation.

Subways and light rail are similar to busses, but rail is just different. I don't consider rail to be unacceptable, but I consider having to take a bus as evidence of a person's personal failure to achieve even a basic level of autonomy. Again, that's in most cases. Sometimes a bus might be the only option, but that's a rare scenario.

I took one a few blocks a few months ago just do do it, and it's a terrible way to commute.

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littlecloudyskye@reddit

Only in very large metropolises. In the majority of places it is not the norm.

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Lexie_Acquara@reddit

I take the bus all the time, I’m not poor but I’m blind so I guess I’m not normal, lol. It depends on your location. In New York, Boston, or San Francisco normal people are taking the bus. But where I grew up in the Midwest, no one but poor or disabled people take the bus. People actually get offended if you choose the bus over accepting a ride from them and the whole concept is foreign to them. They kind of act like you are choosing to sleep on the streets rather than accept an invitation to sleep in their homes. Where I live now, in a city in the Pacific Northwest, it’s a bit more mixed. A lot if poor and homeless, but especially on the trains it will be more ‘normal” everyday working people. There are a lot of park and riders. So whereas I would have to take the bus to get to the train, they will drive their car to a park and ride and then take the train downtown, where I guess parking is expensive. In general, I prefer the bus. Cars feel like steel coffins to me, like you are in a bubble cut off from society. But most people equate cars with their FREEDUM! I get the convenience, but it doesn’t feel like freedom to me.

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Efficient_Wheel_6333@reddit

I think it depends on where you live. My hometown has bus stops, but we're involved in the local Metro bus system that operates out of the county seat and I don't even know if that covers the entire county. Not all bus stops are covered; most are just a sign and you stand there, waiting for the bus.

Our local infrastructure is also so car-oriented that the bus can present other challenges. In my neighborhood, the bus stop with the most routes is at the bottom of a half-mile busy winding road with no sidewalks or streetlights, so you feel a bit like you're risking your life just to get to the bus. As a result, people who don't have to do that typically don't, reinforcing the economic aspects of who does and doesn't take the bus.

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sail4sea@reddit

I live in a rural area. There are no busses except school busses. You pretty much have to drive everywhere. Ill walk 10 blocks to the bar though.

In the nearest city, the busses are pretty good. However, you have to live in the city because the busses dont run between cities.

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Pernicious_Possum@reddit

What is a “normal” person?

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MadCityVelovangelist@reddit

There is a narrative in this country that you must drive or you're a subhuman. Teens get shamed by their parents and peers if they don't get a license.

Aggravating_Fishy_98@reddit

Buses are not as wide spread here. I think the vast majority of places don’t have public transportation at all. I feel like movies and tv shows make this stereotype about only poor people taking the bus but truthfully I’ve never encountered that stereotype. It’s more like “oh cool they have buses here so I don’t have to worry about parking or the cost of gas”

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SufficientProject273@reddit

No. Never have or currently really go anywhere.

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Budsygus@reddit

Makes sense then.

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Medical_Gift4298@reddit

It's just not practical in a lot of places—the US is huge and so is where we live. Where I grew up it was possible to have school buses that run a route, but city buses just wouldn't be practical given how spread out the town was. Just not enough population density.

As an adult I live in the city and ride the bus all the time. So do my kids.

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IlexAquifolia@reddit

It depends on the city. In my city it’s a nightmare to drive downtown during rush hour and parking is hard to come by due to geographic constraints, so many people use public transit to commute to work. It’s a big university city, but the university parking is so limited (lottery only) and expensive that even deans and other leadership types aren’t guaranteed parking (unless you’re at least at a VP level) and will take the bus in.

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PabloThePabo@reddit

it depends on where you live and if you even have access to a bus

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Define “normal”. Most bus users are there because they cannot drive, not because they choose to. I’m not aware of any major American city where bus service is more convenient than driving. I recently took my car for service and took the bus home to save on an uber. It took me 15 mins to get to the shop in the car and 40 mins to get home on the bus.

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Reduak@reddit

In most smaller cities & toqns, buses are primarily used by people who can't afford a car, so working class poor.

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Easy-Tradition-7483@reddit

Poor people are normal people lol. I’m comfortably middle class and I take the bus

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ChanFry@reddit

My city of 150,000 only has like six buses and most of the stops are far from residential areas. So no, almost no one takes the bus.

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UnusualFruitHammock@reddit

I've seen maybe 1 or 2 ghost busses in the past 4 years using the Ventra app times. They are significantly more reliable since COVID

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okeverythingsok@reddit

I take the bus all the time. It's really not that bad, if you are able to avoid certain routes at certain times.

In Alabama, Mississippi, SC one can't GET any freaking where w/o a car and often the Fill-in-the-blank is Y amount of miles away.

NYC/Chicago/DC way more diverse

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NPHighview@reddit

Depends on the city. Chicago’s mass transit system is used by everyone, as is NYC’s. LA, not so much.

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bobd607@reddit

buses in the UK are certainly generally lean to the poorer demographic. Trains are much more common if you can afford them.

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WinterRevolutionary6@reddit

I’m really lucky that my job pays for most of my bus fare and that there is a bus line pretty directly from my home to work with decent frequency. Since there are no free parking options at my job, I take the bus to work every day. I do not take the bus for literally any other situation because it’s extremely cumbersome and a huge time sink especially when I’m trying to haul groceries across town.

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mikegalos@reddit

Inside cities? Sure

Darmok47@reddit

I used to take the bus to work in Washington DC. I remember at the time President Obama's National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes also took the bus to the WH.

I do remember working one job where my boss lived ten blocks directly uptown from the office so she took the bus home. One night heading home, I saw my boss go the bus stop as usual and I heard my coworker joke about "the poors taking the bus."

In many places there are more lower-invome peolle than higher-income ones, so "normal people" are lower-income.

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machagogo@reddit

This just isn't true of standard city busses.

CROSS COUNTRY busses, yes.

No one wants to take a 5 day trip for what would be a 3 hour flight.

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GreenBeanTM@reddit

Depends on where you live. I took the bus several times to get to dance in high school when my moms job schedule conflicted, but since it runs about once on hour, is rarely on time, and takes twice as long the only reason anyone would constantly use it is because they don’t own a car.

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Country-Creepy@reddit

Before living in Honolulu, I rarely used the bus, however the bus system on the island of Oahu is quite robust. My husband and I lived there several years with only one car as I commuted to work on TheBus. Now we live in the DC area so I’m more apt to take the subway if I’m going into the city, but I love buses and public transit in general. I wish we had better public transit throughout the country.

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West-Improvement2449@reddit

I take the bus all the time.

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wordsznerd@reddit

It’s not about whether or not you can afford a car. It’s whether or not public transportation exists in your area.

Larger cities have buses and trains everywhere. In most of them, parking is expensive and there’s a ton of traffic. Most people will use public transportation, or maybe get an uber if for some reason that will work better at that time. In big cities, public transportation is almost always the most convenient way to travel.

Large cities generally extend their transportation systems partially into the suburbs, too, so that helps. And the northeast has a collection of larger cities that are relatively close together, so there are trains between them.

In smaller cities, there may be a bus or two going around downtown, but that’s it. They won’t get much use because they aren’t convenient either in location and frequency. That’s more the situation where people only use it if they can’t afford a car. Anyone who can afford to not waste the whole day on a single errand will absolutely avoid it.

Everywhere else, there isn’t any local public transportation at all other than school buses. Well, except some towns will maintain a shuttle service that elderly and disabled people can arrange to pick them up for appointments and things. Everyone else needs a car.

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bourbonandcheese@reddit

If you live in the country or the suburbs you likely never take a city bus.

If you live in a medium-sized city and you're in the upper-middle or above class you likely rarely or never take the bus.

If you live in a medium- or small-sized city and are lower-middle class or below you probably take the bus with frequency.

If you live in one of the largest cities like NY or Chicago and are anything other than upper class you probably take the bus with frequency.

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ForestOranges@reddit

I live in a medium sized city (300,000+ people just in the city limits alone) and a lot of lower middle class people still mainly use car. I do know some people where they are/were a one car household to keep costs down.

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Particular_Bet_5466@reddit

No. You are considered poor if you take the bus.

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mykepagan@reddit

Busses and subways inside cities are used often enough. I work in NYC on a regular basis and my car does not cross theHudson River because using the subway is MUCH faster.

In between cities? Those buses have a stigma in the USA. Part of the problem is that they take forever to get to the destination, because they make a lot of stops.

Once I was flying from London to NYC, and the (British) woman sitting next to me asked how to get to the bus station. When she said she was going to Dallas, the look of horror on my face must have shocked her. NYC->Dallas by bus would take maybe 3 *DAYS* (maybe more), and you’d be sitting next to a schizophrenic homeless person most of the way.

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msspider66@reddit

When I lived in Brooklyn, I took the bus fairly regularly.

I currently live in metro Detroit. There are busses here but I have never taken one. I do work from home

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waynofish@reddit

WokeUpIAmStillAlive@reddit

Not if they can avoid it... they let anyone on which is fine until its the dude that pisses himself and other issues sitting beside you... also they dont really clean then very often.

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AgileSurprise1966@reddit

In a dense urban area, everyone will use the bus once in a while because even wealthy people don't necessarily keep a car in the city, and for a short trip the bus might be convenient. Long haul bus rides in the suburbs for commuting or for daily tasks, or for cross country trips ( alas our passenger train system is vestigial) are more of a sign that you are hard up because everyone that possibly can has a car as it is a necessity to get basic life things done out there.

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Space-Robot@reddit

I really tried to take public transportation when I lived in L.A. I was commuting over 3 hours just to go from the valley to Washington/LaBrea and back which was the redline subway and two buses.

I take the bus to and from work every week day. I like to think of myself as fairly normal.

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rwv2055@reddit

We don't have busses where I live.

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DJPaige01@reddit

Even if I had a hazmat suit complete with gloves and face shield, you couldn't pay me to take a public bus.

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2PlasticLobsters@reddit

It's very common in the DC area. A lot of people take a bus to the Metro, so they don't have to deal with parking at the station & traffic along the way. I did this for a long time, till they made major cutbacks to the routes, and eliminated 2 of the 3 lines in my neighborhood. That made things too much of a hassle, and took 3x as long. I drove in after that.

There are also "commuter bus" lines in some of the more distant suburbs. These usually have park & ride lots, because they don't make many stops in neighborhoods. They're more like an express line, because after certain points, they don't make many stops to let people out. Usually it's just a few major intersections or Metro stations.

I think in most congested areas, you'll find that lots of regular people use the bus. Even if we can afford to drive, it's often more trouble than it's worth.

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TheMarshmallowFairy@reddit

It depends where you are in the country. In very large metro areas, public transportation is relatively well designed and accessible to most. I lived in Denver about 20 years ago and needed to use the bus a few times; I lived fairly close to a bus line on one of the busiest streets, so it was easy enough, but I’m not sure if that can be said for the rest of the city.

But in the majority of the country, IF public transportation is even available, it’s often a large hassle (not many stops or lines so you may have to walk long distances, infrequent stops so if you miss the one you wanted you end up waiting a long time, etc) so if you’re able to buy and maintain a car, that ends up being better overall. But those cost money.

In my hometown, the bus only ran from 7am-6pm (and not at all on weekends) so if you worked anything but a regular 8-5, you probably weren’t able to use it for both getting to and from work. And about half the town commuted to the bigger city 30 minutes away; there was a bus line that ran back and forth but it ran the same hours and there was only 1 bus every 30 minutes.

I remember being like 6 and my stepmom not having her license and we needed to use the bus when my dad was gone for a few weeks for work. We’d walk about a mile and a half to the closest stop, she’d have to carry my brother up the steps in his stroller (or take him out and try to carry both him and the stroller), we’d wait however long it was until we got to the closest stop to the grocery store, walk another 1/2 mile or so to the store, and then she could only get enough groceries for her to be able to carry them home. Then the reverse going home, except this time she also had groceries to wrangle trying to get back on and off the bus. In all, it was probably at least 2 hours for only 2-3 days of food. Maybe even 3 hours (little concept of time at that age but we usually went shortly after breakfast and she’d make lunch when we got home). When she was finally able to overcome her anxiety and get her license, that entire process went down to like 1/2 hour or so (and less frequently since she could get a weeks worth of food or more).

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IPreferDiamonds@reddit

I have never taken the bus and would never take a bus.

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DepthPuzzleheaded494@reddit

Yes, normal people take all forms of public transit. Also poor people are normal people too but people of all wealth status take the bus and subway here.

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saberlight81@reddit

buses in USA are only for the poor?

Very location dependent. I would guess that in most smaller to midsized cities this is broadly true. I grew up being told that buses were a good place to get robbed, and still today am of the perception that nobody who can afford to own a car ever takes the bus (unless they are traveling to NYC or something).

That said though, in larger, denser cities with better transit and pedestrian infrastructure, taking the bus is more normalized across social classes, mostly because not owning a car is more normalized across social classes.

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revjor@reddit

I do, but I’m lucky to live somewhere with reliable buses.

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Dave_A480@reddit

7% of the US population uses something other than a single occupant personal vehicle for transportation.

And a huge chunk of that 7% lives in NYC.

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NetheriteTiara@reddit

Depends on the city. DC, incredibly normal. New York - more people take the subways but people use the bus depending on route. Los Angeles - besides commuter specific busses (beach towns to downtown only for rush hours) - mostly lower-income on the busses and basically only low income for the train/subways. NorCal has trains that lots of people use but it covers more ground. No clue about busses there.

Heavily depends on location for how many regular people actually ride the bus, but the negative connotation is absolutely there especially among white suburban people. The bus is "dangerous" and only for the poors and minorities.

I've had to argue with some of my relatives when they learn that I take public transit because they don't want me exposed to the types of people who ride the bus. I explain to them, I AM the type of people who ride the bus, but they still think they know better.

iowanaquarist@reddit

What bus? The school bus? Yes, school kids that live more than a mile and a half away do.

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GrowlingAtTheWorld@reddit

No bus in my town unless you are talking about a cross country bus like greyhound. I rode the bus when i visited Orlando, they seemed clean and tidy, it was just me and some maids from the hotels. I rode the bus a couple times in my college town from the airport to school and the bus driver was so nice she called ahead to make sure the bus I had to catch from the mall to the university would wait for me cause she was running a tad late.

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WickedRavyn94@reddit

Yup

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swfwtqia@reddit

Depends where you live. Here in Phoenix, the bus options aren’t that great. I can either drive 20 minutes or walk/take the bus and it will take 1-1.5 hrs. I would say normal people don’t take it unless they are in downtown Phoenix where the stops are a lot closer and the routes make sense.

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Honeybee3674@reddit

We live in a middle sized city in Michigan. Michigan is the home of the Big 3 auto makers, which killed most major public transportation initiatives. Maybe Detroit is an exception?

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brinazee@reddit

Depends on the city. If public transit is well implemented, yes.

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Depends on where you live.

In more urban areas with comprehensive mass transit, almost everyone will take the bus at some point in their lives.

In car-centric communities with poor mass transit (too few options with minimal road and time coverage) only people who can’t afford a car or can’t otherwise drive take the bus. Most people who choose to live in the communities never step on their local bus.

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ALoungerAtTheClubs@reddit

Some places, it's totally normal. In my area, it's mostly the inconvenient, last-resort option and driving is normal.

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incazteca12345@reddit

I take the bus and train here in Chicago. I've seen plenty of guys sporting Rolexes on the blue line. I don't think they'd be considered poor.

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RobotShlomo@reddit

Unlike Europe, outside of large cities like New York, public transit is primarily utilized by the poor in many cities, and it doesn't take you a lot of places you need to go very efficiently. And the wealthy tend to like it that way.

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Neenknits@reddit

In Boston and Cambridge, yes. Around airports and Disney, yes. In suburbs, council on aging supplies buses for those who no longer drive. Special events have satellite parking with buses. Buses between cities? Not a chance. Not taking those! Unless it’s a group tour! You hire a bus JUST for your group. Those are fun.

Don’t forget, many of our cities are far apart. Boston MA and Houston Tx are as far apart as London and Libya or Russia. My daughter lives as far from me as London is to Berlin. There isn’t a train. Up and down the east coast is a good train line, Boston to NYC to DC. Other than that, there are some crappy tracks shared with freight. Efficient for moving freight. Crap for people.

You can take busses, through. Simon and Garfunkel have a song, “America” about taking the bus.

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PapaTua@reddit

It really depends on where you live as good public transit is deployed really unevenly.

8n most cities public transit is commonly used by everyone. In most suburbs/rural areas, it's mostly for the poor, of it exists at all.

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1235813213455_1@reddit

Where I live even poor people don't use the bus. I'm walking before I take a bus and if it's too far to walk it's too far to take the bus. Our buses suck.

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Blue387@reddit

I no longer own a car and take the bus and subways here, it's also faster than waiting in traffic and better than paying the $9 congestion pricing fee to enter Manhattan

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MsSamm@reddit

On Staten Island, a borough of NYC, busses are for the poor. Or students going to school. The one exception is commuting into the city for work. Then you take the ferry and subway, or you take an express bus into the city.

Busses have to travel mostly one or two lane streets. I had just started a job on Staten Island, 6.6 miles away from my house, but my car needed fixing so I took the bus for a week or two. It took 2 hours 20 minutes to get to work, more to walk from the bus stop.

In the US, not having a car is not a viable thing for the vast majority of the population

Where I live, there is no reliable bus service

If you don't own a car, you don't get to work

The US is built around owning a vehicle

Only is heavily populated cities will you find reliable public transportation

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pinniped90@reddit

I lived in Chicago for a few years. Used bus, Metra, and "L" regularly.

All were full of people going to work or going out or whatever. There was no stigma with using transit.

The trains were always preferred over buses just because of traffic and timeliness but I wasn't afraid to hop on a bus if that's what the journey required.

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RemoteVersion838@reddit

Unless you're in a large city, North America is a car driven culture. A lot of laws favor car culture to line the pockets of big oil and emmission laws favor bigger vehicles. Transit is also less reliable and fuel is 1/2 the price of what it is in Europe so its easy to own a car.

People in major cities often don't have a car, mostly because its incredibly expensive to find and pay for parking.

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hakumiogin@reddit

It varies a lot, pretty much city by city. A robust bus system is used by everyone. If its not good, then it's going to only be used by people who have no other options, who are typically poor people.

But I suppose there is definitely a somewhat-universal perception that public buses are for poor people. I live in NYC, and even though we have a great bus system, some people here who ride the subway daily would balk at the idea of riding the bus.

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I commuted via bus to my fancy downtown tech job for 16 years... then again, I'm not normal, lol! I always say "Normal is just a setting on the washing machine."

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Redbubble89@reddit

In the suburbs, no. It's an okay infrastructure but to get to some where else it's faster to drive and the bus routes aren't that direct. I take the metro downtown because it is direct and it's harder to park.

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imissher4ever@reddit

Are you suggesting poor people aren’t “normal” ?

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FrankDrebinOnReddit@reddit

There's no stigma attached to it in Boston. Plenty of professionals here take local city busses, but that's only true in some cities, and intercity busses are avoided by anyone who can afford another option.

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OwlPelletCrunch@reddit

Logan Express is the best way to get in/out of the airport, and I swore by Peter Pan & the Fung Wah bus back in the day.

I wish we had better train infrastructure nationally, but there are lots of places around the country where getting from one city to another is cheapest/most direct with Greyhound (and they ship luggage/packages!)

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Top-Web3806@reddit

If you live in a few very specific cities it’s a normal way to get around. For 99% of other places, it’s very car centric and so if you don’t have a car and have to take the bus it is viewed in some type of way.

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SirGlass@reddit

It really depends on the city

You have cities like NYC and Boston or Chicago and "Normal" or middle class people will take the bus, or subway or light rail

Having been to other places like Dallas or Kansas City it definitely has the feel that most middle class people drive and busses are for poorer people

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milkandsugar@reddit

Depends on whether or not your city has a transit system and whether or not you would normally drive your own car. I think there are buses where I live, but I never see them when I'm out running errands and honestly, I'd never ride a bus when I have my own vehicle.

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AnchBusFairy@reddit

I'm doing my best to change that in Alaska. Maybe it's a quixotic goal, but I'm having an effect.

Here in NJ we have pretty robust bus coverage across the entire state.

But... I only used the bus when I was dirt poor in high school and college.

For all the insults about American's car culture, there's no way you can convince me that public buses and trains will ever be better than a the private comfort lounges we drive around in right now.

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Floater439@reddit

What do you mean by “normal people“? Lower income people take the bus because they have no other option. Middle class and higher income folks might take the bus for convenience or environmental reasons, but you need to be in a location with good bus service to make that work. That doesn’t include most of the US.

Here’s some stats https://www.apta.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/2025-Q4-Ridership-APTA.pdf

In Boston the average weekday ridership of the bus system is 303,000. In NYC it’s 2 million a day.

So in the best transit cities, the bus ridership is very high and captures much more than the most disadvantaged transit users.

Personally I take the bus once or twice a month when it’s raining too much to walk or bike and parking costs are too high

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kprox1994@reddit

Where I live my 20 minute commute would turn into an hour and a half bus ride with a transfer. Entirely depends on the frequency and number of routes in your area, but not really worth the time in many places unless you are really trying to save money.

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Generally speaking taking the bus is associated with people who are low income. Bus/public transport is so bad in many cities if not most. Horrible hours, have to walk really far to nearest bus stop. Takes double the time to get where you're going. As a result anyone who can even kind of afford a car gets one.

92% of American households have at least 1 car. Most homes have more than one ie one for each adult in that house.

I think UK car ownership is like 70%

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PurpleLilyEsq@reddit

In major cities like NY, DC, Chicago, Boston, LA, etc. yes. Otherwise in the rest of the country busses are very infrequent and unreliable, if they exist at all, so they are only used by people who can’t drive due to disability or unable to afford a car. Almost all American household outside of the aforementioned cities have at least one car, and often every adult in the household has their own car.

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marylander_@reddit

Depends. In NYC? Completely normal. In most subburbs or rural areas, not normal and may not even exist. In citites like dallas or most of the middle of the country- less normal

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BeastyBaiter@reddit

Yes but it's uncommon nationally. It's more common in a few cities but even in those, cars are the norm. Subways are heavily used in the few places that have them.

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Whatswrongbaby9@reddit

I took the bus all the time in Seattle. A funny story was there was a guy in the back I dubbed the bus king. The seating in the back was kind of a square and he’d hold court. One time I ended up back there and other passengers seemed a little bothered that I wasn’t engaging

"Normal" people can and do take the buses here in the United States. Some people generally avoid it because they either have other means of transportation, such as their car, or they find the bus system in their city to be absolutely terrible.

Here in Albuquerque, New Mexico, it's free to ride the bus in the city; there are zero fares. On the flip side.. There are zero fares, which means anyone can get on the bus here. My partner has taken the bus to and from work and other places in our area of Albuquerque, and she's never experienced anything negative. The people on the bus are very friendly and keep to themselves. Tbh.. I'm not against the zero fares. It's just still being worked out

Here is a more conservative article about the zero-fare program we have here: https://riograndefoundation.org/rgf-in-national-review-take-it-from-albuquerque-free-transit-is-a-bad-idea/

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OogieBooge-Dragon@reddit

Not all cities have busses.

Or subways/rail.

Most in fact do not.

Riding the Greyhound, which is a private company that provides transportation bus that does inter and tra state transportation (but again, not every city) and you can meet some very unique people on it.

Super-Bnora@reddit

It depends. When I lived in San Francisco and Boston, everyone took the bus. Now I'm in Connecticut, and taking the bus is definitely less common and less convenient, especially if you want to take a bus from one city or town to another. Most people here drive.

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Any-Concentrate-1922@reddit

Poor people are normal too.

But yes, people do take buses within cities or between towns.

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lindini@reddit

I had to take the city bus to high school. The number of drunks at 7 am would imply not many.

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alphaturducken@reddit

Do you mean does the average person take the bus? No, most of us live in an area where the bus either doesn't exist or doesn't exist on a practical level.

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The US is primarily a car culture, except in some of the major cities. We don't have reliable public transit on a national scale, and many people own cars. So there tends to be the assumption that people who take the bus cannot afford a car and therefore must be poor.

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HackDaddy85@reddit

Depends on the city. But most of the US is built car centric so bus schedules can be very light in many places.

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Outside of a few major metro areas, bus service usually sucks, so the people on the bus tend to either be lucky enough that the service fits their needs or they can't afford a more convenient alternative.

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earmares@reddit

Depends on where you live. I don't live within 100's of miles of a city bus route. We all have to have cars.

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limbodog@reddit

My friend said to me "Buses are what government provide for the people they don't really care about" and I never forgot that. We have a decent subway/train network in my city, but there are underserved communities that get buses and nobody seems like they're looking to fix that.

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